Phred's Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction Freading

October 13, 2007

83 Things in my Rucksack

I finally got around to listing out some of things I believe. I'll usually argue or write from one of these things. This list is by no means exhaustive. Just exhausting.

83 THINGS IN MY RUCKSACK

1. Don’t panic. Cause others to panic.
2. Remember, if perception equals reality, then whose reality trumps. Usually, it’s the one belonging to the lowest common denominator.
3. Don’t let perceptions shape you. Shape perceptions.
4. Know your goal.
5. Improve your foxhole.
6. Civilization and culture relate like spaghetti and meat sauce. The sauce changes, but the basics are the same.
7. Don’t accept wrong in order to make friends. You don’t want those friends anyways.
8. You can whine, you can cry and you can lose. Usually in that order.
9. Self justification is one of the most basic of human responses. Like potty training, the ability to not self justify is a learned response.
10. Start small and say there.
11. You cannot create a society where everyone succeeds. You can create a society where everyone fails.
12. Casual cynicism is the hallmark of intellectual laziness
13. There is no left/right divide. Only down/up. tribal or individual. The muck or the stars.
14. Islamism. Fascism. Communism. Socialism. Once a society decides to commit suicide, it doe not matter which type gun they use.
15. Free societies require constant Repair and Upkeep.
16. Any perfection you have needs to come from an awareness of your flaws.
17. Why do people who fear government the most on the hand, agitate for more on the other.
18. When people say it’s not about them, then yes, it is about them.
19. Self interest and selfishness are polar opposites.
20. Polling is a good indicator of what people think, not what is right.
21. America is hated most by those who stand to lose from her success.
22. They greatest gift from the Creator is our lips. The allow us to keep our mouth’s shut.
23. Everyone loves a loser. Just kidding.
24. Stop trying to improve the world. Start trying to improve yourself.
25. Hate is like putting rocks in your own ruck sack. Doesn’t matter what river they come from, you end up carrying them.
26. Refuse to deal with problems. Create more.
27. A thousand different solutions are more likely to succeed than one.
28. Sometimes both the baby and the bath water need to get thrown out.
29. Don’t be shamed into doing wrong.
30. Mobs can be fun. Until they pull out the rope.
31. Be that leader you want to follow.
32. Anarchy is great. Until the toilet breaks.
33. The American Century has been ending as long as I’ve been alive. It will still be ending after I’m dead.
34. Better to rely on self defense than societal acceptance. One can be taken away; the other, not.
35. I don’t care who you are, what you do or who you do. Just be able to defend yourself.
36. If you’re going to “drop dimes,” then make sure your name and incomplete actions aren’t on the dimes you drop. You just end up looking foolish.
37. Put the Bottom Line Up Front. Use bullets instead of paragraphs. Just because you have all day to write an email, doesn’t mean your boss has all day to read it.
38. Communicate what it is you want done. Then embellish.
39. Keep trying. You’ll have plenty of time to quit when you’re dead.
40. Start small and stay there. That’s how you master the big things.
41. Find the laziest man or woman you can. Then elect them to office.
42. Politics is like a glass of wine. Age turns it into vinegar.
43. Everything I love about America, its ideas, can fit onto a thumb drive.
44. Keep your powder dry.
45. There is tribalism and there is individualism. The left/right divide is an artifice.
46. So? And? Why?
47. Words are often employed to bury reason.
48. Cut from the herd, all men are rational, responsible and reasonable. Just don’t tell anyone.
49. Water is wet. The ground is hard.
50. Some tribes merely wear good suits.
51. If you want to be a dictator, start a company.
52. The less an idea is means tested, the more worthless it is.
53. Keep a D-Ring, some 550 cord, hundred mile per hour tape, Velcro and multiplier tool handy. I mean, you never know.
54. Are you running with the crowd, or merely being carried along?
55. Most people believed the earth was flat. Was it?
56. Man craves power. It beats dirt farming.
57. Is it really trangressive if everyone else is doing it?
58. Know how to do at least one thing. Build from there.
59. Art is not sponsored.
60. Seems where adolescence ends, vulnerable old age begins.
61. If you choose victim hood, then accept the consequences.
62. Life is not fair. It is challenging.
63. Would you use substandard parts to build a racecar? Build better individuals, get a better world.
64. It’s a rock. With trees.
65. Doesn’t matter how old a man is. He may still need to grow up.
66. I don’t care where you came from. I care very much where you’re going.
67. Birth uber alles? Okay. Run with that, monkey boy.
68. Keep trying. You’ll have plenty of time to quit when you’re dead.
69. Don’t tell me what you feel. Tell me what you think.
70. Earn interest on your Talents.
71. Stay in motion.
72. People move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. Osmosis.
73. The future will be fractal. See you on the other side.
74. Plastic, young man. Plastic.
75. People worship the past because they lack vision for the future.
76. Babes are hot.
77. I seriously doubt it.
78. World ends tomorrow? Make plans for the day after.
79. The answer is simple. It’s the questions that are overly complex.
80. Pure democracy requires slave labor. Or robots.
81. Delay gratification. Increase satisfaction.
82. Make love, then war. That way everyone’s happy.
83. Khan, I’m still laughing at your superior intellect.